The first and only time I've seen the Demolition Doll Rods was in the basement of my dorm, thanks to the East Quad Music Co-op. Back in those days (February 2005), whoever was scheduling the shows seemed to have just been picking acts out of a random hat. None of the bands who played that night really had much in common with one another and very few of the fans of those bands had much in common either. Frankly, the night seemed like a study in surrealism. I watched three guys begin a half-hearted mosh pit to the second opening act and then I watched the entire audience recoil in fright as the Demolition Doll Rods took the stage.
Why were they so scared? Probably because the Doll Rods were barely dressed. Or maybe it was because when they started playing, they sounded like the Stooges in hell. The beginning of the show was like watching three elephants attempt ballet: they were all somewhere else, especially the drummer Thumper, making a catastrophic mess. But at the same time, every song was wildly and wonderfully danceable.
A year later, some of that characteristic dissonance has disappeared from the Doll Rods' sound for their fourth record, There is a Difference, but that sexy, blues-dance feeling is accentuated. Singer Margaret Doll Rod still roars with all of the sexiness and spontaneity of a steamy mid-afternoon fuck, while guitarist/co-vocalist Danny Doll Rod (a.k.a. the Gories' Dan Kroha) plays the Ike to her Tina on songs such as "On The Way to School." And frankly, no offense Thumper, but new drummer Babydoll (Tia) Doll Rod is an improvement — she thumps the skins with a bluesy sex appeal that should be able to get a group of hipsters more naked than the band in thirty seconds flat.
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